LISTEN: Gripping saga of teen’s escape from WWII death march to join partisans

This week, here in Israel we’re observing Yom Hashoah, or the Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. It is marked every year on the Hebrew calendar day, the 27th of Nissan, the day that marks the 1943 uprising in Warsaw’s Jewish Ghetto. This year’s official theme is “Rescue by Jews during the Holocaust: Solidarity in a Disintegrating World.”

Growing up in North America, Times of Israel Podcast host Amanda Borschel-Dan studied Holocaust history and was certainly exposed to it in popular culture. But it wasn’t until her move to Israel 20 years ago that she met Holocaust survivors, through her husband’s extended family. We’ll hear from two individuals on The Times of Israel podcast this week.

Today, it is estimated that there are some 400,000 Holocaust survivors around the world, of which 189,500 live in Israel; many were children who were hidden by their parents during the war. For some of these secreted children, especially as Yom Hashoah approaches, this new, very different, era of isolation and lockdown during the coronavirus crisis has dredged up memories of their time in hiding.

First we’ll hear the words of Ruti Beery, who recently wrote a moving social media post in Hebrew about how today, the demons of her past are again upon her as she survives lockdown in Tel Aviv. When she was a 6-year-old, she was hidden in a Slovak monastery with five other Jewish children. Her words, translated into English, are read by her grandson, Daniel Jones.

Ruti Beery today in Tel Aviv, and as a 6-year-old before she was hidden in a Slovak monastery during WWII. (Courtesy)

The second half of the program is dedicated to a gripping wartime account told by 94-year-old Dr. Hanan Karshai. Today, he is a laughing force of nature, but in 1944, 18-year-old Karshai was separated from his family in Plesivec and taken on a transport to a forced labor brigade. He eventually escaped during a death march and joined up with Russian partisans while living in a forest.

Hanan was born in 1926 in the city of Plesivec, then a Hungarian-speaking region of Czechoslovakia, now today’s Slovakia. He was the middle child, with an older sister and younger brother. Only he survived the war.

Karshai has recorded his recollections of family life in pre-war Plesivec, as well as what he endured during and after the war, in a Hebrew-language memoir called “Hashemesh Shaka Batsohoraim” (The Sun Set at Noon). In it, he includes family portraits, as well as a sole souvenir from his time as a forced laborer — a snapshot discarded by a Hungarian soldier.

Dr. Hanan Karshai (left, wearing briefs and a hat) as an 18-year-old forced laborer, captured in a rare snapshot that was discarded by the posing Hungarian soldier (far left). (Courtesy)

After the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, all Jews in his area were forced to wear a yellow Star of David on the left side of their chests; schools were closed and at the end of April 1944 the Jews were moved to the ghetto. Karshai’s father, a doctor, was sill allowed to work at his clinic and brought in news to the ghetto.

The first transport left a month later at the end of May. It was made up of men aged 45-50, and boys in their late teens. Among them was Karshai. As he said his goodbyes to his parents the night before the transport, his father told him that he would return one day and join him in his medical practice. His father said a family friend called Koller Gyula, who owned saw mills and forest property nearby, would also be on the transport and would look out for Hanan.

Dr. Hanan Karshai celebrating his 90th birthday with multitudes of family and friends, Jerusalem, 2016. (Courtesy)

They were sent to Putnok, a small town 100 kilometers to the south, where they were grouped into work brigades. The star of David was removed and replaced by a broad yellow band worn on the right arm. The forced laborers were not given uniforms, only a Hungarian military hat. He became a member of the Number 107/305 Hungarian Royal Israelite Working Brigade. The brigade was soon sent to a huge camp where brigades of forced laborers were set to work on a military airport. From there, he was sent with 250 inmates to work in a sand mine in Transylvania.

The sand mine was a deep open pit that had been abandoned for years. All the work was done manually. The exhausted men slept outside in all weather with a single blanket. Later, as the German army retreated, the inmates were marched through eastern Hungary. Hanan and the rest of the inmates hoped for liberation by the Russian army, which proved elusive.

It is at this point that the friend of Hanan’s father, Koller Gyula, makes good on his promise to help save Hanan’s life.

Listen to what came next on The Times of Israel podcast.